Former owner of Rosgosstrakh Danil Khachaturov spoke about the details of the sale of RGS Life

The former owner of Rosgosstrakh, Danil Khachaturov, for the first time disclosed the details of the sale to the company of RGS Life by Evgeny Giner. According to him, the deal was made in order to cover Rosgosstrakh's billions of losses from compulsory motor third party liability insurance.

Danil Khachaturov handed over to the president and owner of the CSKA football club Evgeny Giner at the end of 2015 the right to own Rosgosstrakh Life on the basis of deed of trust (within the framework of English law). This ex-owner of the companies "RGS Life" and "Rosgosstrakh" reported June 13 at a press conference.

In the accounts of "RGS Life", its ultimate owner is Alkhas Sangulia, a long-time partner of Khachaturov. Yevgeny Giner announced that he is the final beneficiary of "CSW Life", only in April 2018, speaking to the company's staff.

A deed of trust is a document under which an asset is transferred to trust management and in which all parties to the transaction are indicated: the founder of the trust, the trustee, the conditions, etc. As part of the trust agreement, the trustee does not formally own the asset, but he has rights to it. Option ownership means that the buyer of the asset has the right to own an option (security), which involves buying an asset for a certain period of time from the seller of the option at the set price.

Outside of Russia

Describing the procedure for selling the life insurer Giner, Khachaturov said: "This deed of trust, that is, the right to own. This is a fairly simple form, it can be optional, and it can happen simply with the transfer of rights. Throughout 2015-2016, the form of ownership of the option was "chosen" in the course of how the money was transferred. " Khachaturov did not mention the amount of the deal, noting that now the property rights to "RGS Life" are brought in line with Russian legislation.

Khachaturov explained that he sold the life insurance company to the owner of CSKA to cover the losses of Rosgosstrakh from OSAGO (in 2016 - 33.3 billion rubles). "When you need big funds to cover losses on OSAGO - and I recall, in 2015, we had 20 billion rubles in damages for OSAGO, in 2016 - 30 billion rubles, that is somewhere in the market it was necessary take 50 billion rubles., So, it was necessary to sell something, "Khachaturov said.

"Probably, Khachaturov transferred" RGS Life "to trust under trust management, and at the same time Giner signed an option agreement that gave him the right after a certain time to buy back the asset from Khachaturov," says A2 law firm partner Mikhail Alexandrov. According to the lawyer, the transfer of property under the trust agreement is a popular procedure in foreign jurisdictions, but there is no such contractual form in Russian law. Therefore, despite the fact that in English law Giner is actually the ultimate beneficiary, such a deal in Russia still requires confirmation from the FAS and the Central Bank, says the lawyer.

Eugene Giner, in turn, said that last week the FAS gave permission to formalize his rights to own the company. "Now we have already received permission from the FAS," he said, adding that now it is planned to agree on a change of ownership with the Central Bank.

The FAS and the Central Bank did not respond to the request of RBC.

Hidden Beneficiary

Earlier it was reported that "RGS Life" in December 2016 was sold by Khachaturov to his partner Alkhaz Sanguliy. As a result, this insurance company was not included in the perimeter of the deal for Rosgosstrakh's purchase of Rosgosstrakh from Danil Khachaturov and, unlike Rosgosstrakh, did not join the bank in the last days of August for reorganization to the Central Bank's consolidation of the banking sector.

Eugene Giner announced publicly about the rights to "RGS Life" in April 2018. But, according to Giner, the deputy chairman of the Central Bank Vladimir Chistyukhin and the head of the sanated "FC Opening" Mikhail Zadornov knew about this fact. "At a meeting with Mikhail Mikhailovich [Zadornov] and Chistyukhin, I indicated that I was bought, there are all the documents," Giner said. "I'm not" front-line "(I do not cover - RBC), it's really my company since 2015," explained the owner of CSKA, adding that he personally informed Zadornov and Chistyukhin "in the VTB24 building in October and the month of 2017".

According to Chistyukhin, the Central Bank found out that Giner owns "RGS Life" only when Giner announced this publicly. "We just learned after his announcement. We will find out who the beneficiary really is, "the deputy chairman of the Central Bank said (quoted by TASS).

Disputes for "Life"

The company "RGS Life" became the main subject of disputes between the former owners of Rosgosstrakh and the new management of the bank FC Opening. Unlike the unprofitable "Rosgosstrakh", the insurer of life "RGS Life" is profitable - its net profit in the result of 2017 amounted to 2.3 billion rubles, following the results of 2016 - 3.4 billion rubles.

In late May, Mikhail Zadornov expressed his hope for the return of "RGS Life" to the balance of FC "Otkrytie", adding that in any case, "Opening" would launch the creation of a new company - life insurer. Already in June, the bank controlled Rosgosstrakh filed a lawsuit against RGS Life for 116.6 billion rubles. for using the trademark, considering the unfair transaction for transferring "RGS Life" for several years the right to use the trademark "Rosgosstrakh". "Shortly before the rescue of Rosgosstrakh by FC Opening Bank and the Bank of Russia, the previous management concluded a deal that was exclusively profitable for the company RGS Life," RBC said in the press service of Rosgosstrakh.

In turn, Danil Khachaturov made counter-claims. RGS Life under the terms of the deal between Khachaturov and FC Otkryt was to, firstly, retain the rights to use the Rosgosstrakh brand, and secondly, Rosgosstrakh and FC Otkrytie had to sell policies on an exceptional basis "RGS Life", said Danil Khachaturov. In his opinion, FC Opening did not fulfill its obligations under the deal, and now he plans to settle the dispute in court. Claims on certain items of the deal will be filed in the near future, but the sale of Rosgosstrakh will not be disputed, said the former owner of the insurance company.

Khachaturov said before the transfer of assets (PJSC Rosgosstrakh, Rosgosstrakh Bank, Rosgosstrakh and real estate) to FC Otkritie, the parties to the deal held a "big meeting" with the participation of representatives of the Central Bank, where all the terms of the deal were confirmed. However, to date, "if we talk about what has been done [by FC Opening,] nothing has been done," Khachaturov said.

The press service of Rosgosstrakh stated that the documents on the transfer of Rosgosstrakh to FC Otkritie do not contain conditions for the sale of the policies of RGS Life on an exceptional basis: "Perhaps these are Mr. Khachaturov's personal agreements." Despite this, Rosgosstrakh continues to sell policies of the company "RGS Life", if the policyholder is drawn with a specific request for the acquisition of the policy of this company, added to Rosgosstrakh.

Is there a chance

Lawyers say that without studying the primary documents it is difficult to understand what chances the parties have in the trials. If the parties have assumed several obligations, some of which are executed, and some are not, one of the parties has the right to demand execution of other parts of the transaction from the party that failed to fulfill them, and also to claim damages if those were caused by non-performance, says the partner of the legal bureau "Padva and Epstein" Pavel Gerasimov. "Everything depends on what was fixed and how. It is necessary to build on the content of primary documents. In general, such a lawsuit is possible, if there are appropriate grounds, "he notes.

If we proceed only from Khachaturov's words, then this is a sufficient basis for recovery of losses; in order to collect the claimed amounts in court and to recognize the terms of the transaction as not fulfilled, "RGS Life" must prove the amount of damages caused and the causal relationship of their occurrence, says the partner of the law firm "Stream" Farid Babayev. "Meanwhile, no one yet knows all the details of the treaty and the way it was concluded - it is unlikely that FC Opening would unreasonably file multibillion claims inadvertently," he adds.